Located in the French department of Eure, the town of Gisors is home to the Château de Gisors. During the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the castle served as a vital stronghold for the Normandy dukes. Its goal was to keep the King of France from invading the Anglo-Norman Vexin area. Robert of Bellême was given the order by King William II of England to construct the first castle at Gisors. The octagonal stone keep atop the motte was constructed by Henry I of England as part of his mission to fortify Normandy against the ambitions of the French monarchy. Henry I also erected the royal castle at Gisors. It witnessed the building of about twenty-five castles. During the imprisonment of King Richard I of England in Germany in 1193, the castle, which was commanded by Gilbert de Vascoeuil, was taken over by King Philip II of France. Following demise of Richard in 1199, Philip went on to conquer a significant portion of the remaining Normandy, which resulted in decline of Gisors in significance as a frontier castle. The connection of the castle to the Templars is another well-known fact, under the administration of the French king from 1158 to 1160. It was the last jail of the Grand Master of the Order Jacques de Molay until 1314. The first construction, which dates to around 1095, was a motte encompassed by a large courtyard or bailey. The motte was enhanced with an octagonal stone keep by Henry I, Duke of Normandy, of England. Important reinforcement work carried out after 1161 saw this keep elevated and expanded, the wooden palisade of the motte turned to stone, creating a chemise, and the outside wall of the bailey finished in stone with flanking towers. One of the best surviving specimens of a shell keep is said to be the octagonal keep. The bailey is thought to have held 1,000 men, but in 1438 there were only 90 English soldiers in the garrison. This had dropped to 43 by 1448. The French Ministry of Culture has designated the Château de Gisors as a historical monument since 1862 [Information and Image Credit : Château_de_Gisors, Wikipedia] [Wikipedia-Link : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A2teau_de_Gisors ] [Image : The original octagonal keep and chemise of Gisors; Wikipedia-Image-Author : Nitot] [Image Availed Under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License; (Please Relate to Individual Image URLs for More Usage Property and Sharing, Remixing or Attributing the Work)] [License-Link : https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en ] [Wikipedia-Image-Source-Link : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chateau-de-Gisors.jpg ] #History#Architecture#Castles
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Monuments and Architecture
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